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The Hunt – The wrong quarry.

Every person who watched Festen knows how far the potential and genius of Thomas Vinterberg can go.

Jagten or The Hunt, is a perfect psycho-social movie, illustrating mob hysteria ; the power and consequences of a crowd driven by a same belief.
The dramatic event in here, is the conviction of an innocent man, forced into social exile and this due to false accusations. The catalyzer was a little girl’s fake confession. Indeed, she was seeking attention from her parents, and seeing in the character of Mads Mikkelsen, who works in her kindergarden, a parental figure. Klara wanted him to replace her genitors, but when he sort of rejected her, she complained about him to the director, saying things she heard from her brother and his friend without being aware of their impact.

Now, how to get away from this situation?
A kid, an innocent kid, who’s words haven’t been questioned and somehow, can’t be questioned, appears as pure and confused, versus, an adult fully aware of his actions, best friend of the little girl’s father and who’s always playing with children. Objectively you would go for the girl.

Well, Klara said multiple times that she made everything up, and it is known that she has imagination, however it is too late. The locals developed this unconditional hate for Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), and transformed themselves into one entity moved by this hate.

Incest, pedophilia, families torn apart, friendships broken into pieces; these are Vinterberg’s favorite topics.
Despite this feeling of people being dehumanized, we’re wrapped into a movie full of humanity. Human relations are described as fragile and unstable but also as essential and irreplaceable.

The film director is painting the harrowing portrait of a progressive man’s descent into hell. And I cried, hated, yelled, while watching this film. An explosive experience of emotional feelings.

And being an unconditional fan of the tv series Hannibal, I could only fall a little more in love with Mads Mikkelsen, who performed Lucas with an unique restraint and a such ease in conveying emotions.